Friday, 9 November 2012

I Know, I know. Yes all right I know! I get it. I said I was not gonna post again til Sunday but today's Friday and I'm sticking something new on the Blog. Anyway about 8 or 9 months ago I ran a poll asking what my readers thought I should start as my next project. The most popular result was 15mm Sci Fi, which I have started, almost got one whole force painted based and ready to go, I have even started the second, (rival) force but have bogged down as I contemplate alien camouflage patterns. However the second favourite on the poll was 15mm Wild West! I have always seen this as a big battle game rather than a skirmish gunfight. I did look at both plains Indians and desert tribes. I settled on the Apache nations as one side as I simply had not seen a game with Apaches and had seen a couple with Sioux. Also as I wanted more of a Hollywood feel, my name is Clint after all, I see the Apaches more as an ambush force rather than a game where you put all your troops on the table at the start of the battle. For me this game will fit under the colonial wargames umbrella. Mostly when we think of Colonial wargames we think Sudan, Zululand, Boxer Rebellion etc. There are many more of course but as they don't have any blockbuster films associated with them we do tend to forget them. The Wild West and Indian wars also fall into the colonial (Victorian) era and have a huge wealth of films, both good and bad, tied to them not of course to forget the plethora of TV series.

SO I finally managed to paint my first 2 bases of mounted Apaches. The figures are LKM/QRF (http://www.quickreactionforce.co.uk/) look in the Frie Korps section on the web site. These figures were the best Apache Indian figure I could find and easily obtain. I actually picked them up at the BROADSIDE show this year the trader tends to carry about 4 packs to each show, so I bought them out. I like these figures, they are very characterful and fit the feel of a tribal nation. Of particular note is the figure hanging on the horses neck and firing a pistol while using the horse for cover. They did have some flash from casting, but they cleaned up easily and without too much effort. I shall be getting more. Some are armed with Pistols others with Rifles. Most if you look carefully have a knife in the belt as well. I feel they are well sculpted and a they come with a variety of poses in a pack it adds to the variegated feel of the fugues.

Obviously I have a long way to go with this project, having just completed 2 bases. I do however think that I shall enjoy getting them done. These 4 figures were my trial figures to see how they painted and most importantly what they would look like finished. Overall I like the setting, the figures and the background and am a big fan of Western films. I will talk about the rules I intend to use another time, but as this is just the very start of the project there is a long way to go.

Next post will be Sunday, (Yes I know I have said that before). Until then take care and paint a few figures roll a few dice and have some fun. All the best Clint

Wednesday, 7 November 2012

These are 2 Stug 3s by Battlefront. Both are resin from the Flames of war starter set. Another eBay purchase, they are nothing special as such, but are good value both in pounds and PBI points. One of the reasons for the good points value is the fact that they don't have a turret but a fixed gun mount. This is not too much of a drawback in PBI and is definitely worth the points drop. You just have to make sure you are pointing towards the enemy, which you would mostly be doing anyway to get the greatest armour value. So from a PBI point of view a couple of very handy AFVs.

That's today's very quick post. Pressure at work denies me the luxury of either more paining time or more blogging time. Have a good week people and I will probably post next on Sunday. All the best Clint

Monday, 5 November 2012

We had a SAGA day at the club. I had to leave early so only got two games in. My first game was against Dave, (He's not really a club member as he belongs to Walderslade club, but he's a nice guy and was most welcome). I Had the Vikings and Dave the Normans. The picture shows my last turn. As you'll know I have only played one other game of Saga, which is about average at our club. So going against Dave who has played many games, has all the armies and is playtesting new ones for the producers would be a forgone conclusion you would think. And you would be right. He played fair and explained the rules as he went which was beneficial. However he did manage to beat me quite easily despite my best efforts.
My second game was against Patrick, also fielding Vikings. This was a much closer game and I was actually winning but I left my warlord exposed and Patrick was able to send a fresh unit of Hearthgurd against him. The Rest of Pats army was decimated and his leader about 18 inches behind his front line well out of reach. Without going into details too much in the fight my warlord rolled 5 dice, and scored 1,1,1,1,2. While Patrick managed to inflict 3 wounds on the warlord and I failed to save any of them! Curses. The dice gods hate me!

The pics are just random shots of some of the other games in progress. All in all I did have fun despite loosing both games I played. As mentioned earlier in the post I left early to get some sleep as I am on silly amount of overtime at the moment. Given the overtime I might have to go dark later in the week simply through lack of time to get anything posted.

I shall post again on Wednesday as I have finished a couple of things, but after that who knows.
Anyway enough of my waffle for now. Take care, have fun and talk again soon. Cheers Clint.